Duke   University   Libraries 

Speech  of  Hon. 
Conf  Pam  12mo  #379 

0^053=1173 


SPEECH 


OP 


HON.  B.  H.  HILL, 


DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE 


GEORGIA  LEGISLATURE 


IN  MILLEDGEVILLE, 


ON    1HE    EVENING    OF  THE   1  lTH  DECEMBER,   1SG2. 


Printed  by  request  of  Members, 


MILLEDGEVILLE  : 

R.  M.  ORME  &  SON,  PRINTERS. 

January.  1863. 


COK.B.ESI:>02^r>B3SrCE. 


Milledgeville,  December  12, 1862. 
Hon.  B.  H.  Hill  : 

Dear  Sir  : — The  undersigned,  members  of  the  General  Assembly,  take 
pleasure  in  expressing  their  high  gratification  at  the  able  address  delivered 
by  you  last  night  in  the  Representative  Hall,  and  would  respectfully  request 
a  copy  for  publication. 

.  Very  respectfully,  yours, 
S.  F.  ALEXANDER,  34th  Diet.        J.  A.  L.  LEE, 
J.  A.  SHEWMAKE,  17th  Dist.  J.  H.  R.  WASHINGTON, 

L.  M,  HILL,  29th  Dist.  JOHN  FAVER, 

B.  T.  HARRIS,  20th  Dist.  JAMES  B.  KEY, 

D.  R.  MITCHELL,  42d  Dist.  JOHN  W.  McCORD, 

JOS.  A.  GASTON,  36th  Dist.  P.  E.  LOVE, 

WM.  GIBSON.  18th  Dist.  MILTON  A.  CANDLER, 

J.  H.  ECHOLS,  30th  Dist.  L.  N.  WHITTLE, 

T.  M.  FURLOW,  13th  Dist.  BEN.  B.  MOORE, 

D.  J.  BOTH  WELL,  14th  Dist.  ROBT.  J.  BACON, 
WM.  P.  BEASLY,  37th  Dist.  ROBERT  HESTER, 
WILLIAM  M.  BROWN,  T.  M.  NORWOOD, 

E.  G.  CABANISS,  J.  J.  THRASHER. 


LaGkange,  Ga.,  Jaauary  7th,  1863. 
Gentlemen  : — Your  letter  requesting  for  publication  a  copy  of  the  speech 
I  had  the  honor  to  deliver  before  the  General  Assembly,  was  handed  to  me 
before  I  left  Milledgeville.     I  made  the  speech  with  no  thought  of  publica- 
tion, and  therefore  was  not  prepared  with  a  copy. 

Learning  that  a  gentleman  had  taken  tolerably  full  stenographic  notes,  of 
the  speech,  I  applied  to  him  to  write  them  out.  He  kindly  promised  to  fur- 
nish them  to  me.  After  waiting  a  considerable  time,  he  wrote  me  that  he 
had  been  prevented  from  complying  with  the  promise. 

In  the  midst  of  other  engagements  I  have  endeavored  to  write  out  the 
speech.  I  have  not  been  abie  to  recall  the  language  spoken,  but  the  line  of 
argument  is  precisely  the  same.  Hoping  the  views  uttered  will,  at  least,  do 
no  harm,  I  place  them  at  your  disposal. 

Since  the  speech  was  delivered,  several  splendid  victories  have  crowned 
our  arms  with  new  and,  if  possible,  more  glorious  triumphs.  These  give  in- 
creased confidence  to  the  high  and  gratifying  hopes  of  final  success  which  I 
then  expressed. 

In  the  midst  of  scenes  which  should  excite  universal  accord  and  harmony 
in  all  the  measures  of  the  administration,  it  is  painful  to  Georgians  to  find 
only  in  our  State  a  few  who  still  murmur  and  seek  to  divide.  What  can  be 
the  end  or  the  object  of  strife  now  '!  Rational  men  must  have  a  distinct 
purpose  in  view.  Are  we  so  tired  of  the  revolution  that  we  wish  to  retrace 
its  steps  and  go  back  ?  Or  are  we  so  in  love  with  revolution  that  we  desire 
another  ?     Or,  is  it  simply  an  Erostratan  ambition  for  notoriety? 

Perhaps  these  differences  are  inseparable  from  republican  governments. 
They  existed  in  Washington's  day,  and  charged  the  Father  of  his  Country 
with  infidelity  to  the  Constitution,  and  wit,h  ambition  to  wear  imperial  pur- 
ple. We  can  then  afford  to  be  patient,  and  the  justice  that  rewarded  then, 
will  be  meted  out  again. 

With  great  regard  for  you  all,  personally,  gentlemen,  I  have  the  honor 
to  be, 

Very  truly  yours, 

B.  H.  HILL. 
Messrs.  E.  G.  Cabaniss,  J.  A.  L.  Lee,  and  othefs. 


SPEECH. 


Ladies.  Gentlemen  of  the  General  Assembly,  and  Fellew-citizens  : 

When  this  revolution  began  I  imposed  on  myself  sternly  what  I  regarded 
as  the  virtue  of  silence.  In  my  opinion  success  had  to  be  won  by  active 
arms,  united  hearts,  liberal  sacrifices,  aud  that  without  which  all  these  might 
prove  unavailing- — silent  tongues.  As  you  have  just  been  informed,  a  large 
majority  of  the  General  Assembly  invited  me  to  address  them,  and  in  defer- 
ence to  their  wish  I  am  here  to-night  for  that  purpose.  I  am  sure  I  intend 
to  say  nothing  but  that  which  will  promote  the  good  of  the  country  and  the 
harmony  of  our  prople — which  I  consider  inseparable. 

I  have  been  an  humble  and  very  quiet  actor  in  this  revolution  from  its  be- 
ginning. I  have  been  a  very  close  and  anxious  observer  of  men,  of  meas- 
ures aud  of  things,  and  it  shall  be  my  purpose  to-night  to  give  you  a  brief 
review  in  general  terms  of  the  embarrassments  of  the  Confederate  Govern- 
ment from  its  organization;  the  progress  that  Government  has  made;  the, 
causes  of  that  progress,  and  the  probable  result  of  the  revolution,  judged  by 
the  past  and  the  present. 

Perhaps  no  assembly  of  men  ever  took  place  under  circumstances  of  great- 
er anxiety  and  higher  responsibilities  than  thoee  which  surrounded  and 
pressed  upon  tne  Convention  which  met  in  Montgomery  on  the  4th  day  of 
February,  1861.  For  one,  I  felt  most  heavily  the  crisis1.  There  were  miny 
troubles  on  every  hand.  The  present  was  stormy.  The  future  was  dark — 
very  dark  When  we  first  assembled  we  were  forty-three  delegates,  repre- 
senting six  Slates.  Texas  was  soon  added.  These  seven  States  had  sepa- 
rated from  and  formed  a  border  or  fringe  of  what  had  been  a  very  powerful 
republic;  a  republic  great  in  every  sense;  full  of  men:  full  of  resources  ; 
full  of  genius  and  talent;  and  full  of  prosperity.  We  had  a  large  coast,  and 
no  navy  with  which  to  protect  and  defend  it.  We  ha<J  but  a  small  popula- 
tion— less  than  three  millions  against  more  than  twenty-five  millions.  Our 
resources  were  exceedingly  limited.  There  was  not  known  to  be  a  saltpetre 
cave  capable  of  being  worked  in  the  Confederacy.  We  had  very  few  mu- 
nitions of  war,  and  still  fewer  facilities  for  procuring  more.  In  ail  the  ele- 
ments of  power  necessary  to  prosecute  the  revolution  by  force,  we  were 
weak. 

But  ail  these  together  constituted  not  our  greatest  trouble  nor  our  greatest 
weakness.  The  most  serious  difficulty  resting  upon  that  Convention  was 
the  conviction,  very  generally  if  not  universally  shared  by  the  members, 
that  we  were  not  certain  of  a  constituency.  Our  people  were  divided — 
greatly  and  almost  angrily  divided.  There  was  not  much  division  as  to  our 
abstract  right  to  set  up  for  ourselves,  nor  in  relation  to  the  fact  that  the  sec- 
tional rule  asserted  by  the  North  was  a  sufficient  cause  for  separation  ;  but 
many  felt,  and  felt  keenly,  that  the  separation  had  been  hasty,  ill-advised, 
and  without  that  consultation  and  concert  which  was  due  to  our  sister  slave 
.States,  and  to  the  crisis.  Thus,  seven  States  not  compactly  situated,  with 
one-eighth  the  population,  with  a  large  sea  coast  exposed,  with  few  supplies, 
and  fewer  resources,  and  with  a  divided  people,  dared  the  wrath  of  this  pow- 
•  erful  republic,  as  full  of  hate  and  fanaticism  as  of  men  and  materials.  How 
could  these  trainers  feel  otherwise  than  oppressively  anxious  I 

Nor  was  the  prospect  of  our  enlargement  in  any  degree  flattering.  Soon 
•ilfter  the  assembling  of  that  convention  the  border  States  voted  on  the  prop- 
osition to  cast  in  their  lot  with  us.  Not  only  by  a  large,  but  by  an  overwhelm- 
ing majority,  they  refused  to  do  so.  And  we  felt  and  knew  that  many  had 
cast  that  vote  under  the  stinging  reflection  that  we  had  not  treated  them  with 
due  consideration. 


~?112  IS 


This  was  the  state  of  thing*  now  known  to  us  all,  and  therefore  I  speak  of 
it  freely.  But,  fellow-citizens,  the  skies  soon  began  to  change.  Light  min- 
gled with  the  darkness.  True,  it  was  on  the  bosom  of  a  war  cloud,  and  just 
before  a  deluge  of  blood,  yet  the  bow  of  hope  was  seen  and  all  was  not 
darkness. 

What  wrought  this  change  and  inspired  this  hope?  The  first  cause  will 
be  found  in  the  prompt  and  wise  labors  of  that  Convention.  The  formation 
of  the  new  Constitution  was  a  very  powerful  agency  for  good.  Many  of  our 
own  people  had  serious  apprehensions  that  the  purpose  or  the  revolution  was 
not  simply  to  get  rid  of  the  union  with  the  North.  Some  anticipated  a  more 
radical  democracy — a  fearful  anarchy.  Others  looked  for  an  aristocracy,  or 
even  a  limited  monarchy.  London,  Exeter  Hall,  and  Boston  Pandemonium 
had  horrid  images  of  a  slave-trade  oligarchy  floating  before  them,  and  cer- 
tainly destined  to  shock  the  sensibilities  of  mankind. 

All  these  were  disappointed.  The  Convention,  with  a  promptness  and 
unanimity  never  surpassed,  agreed  upon  and  adopted  the  old  Constitution 
with  only  such  changes,  well  interwoven,  as  time  and  discussion  had  shown 
to  be  necessary  and  proper.  Even  the  candid  of  our  enemies  were  driven  to 
admit  that  the  new  Constitution  was  an  improvement  The  world  admitted 
the  statesmanship  of  the  Convention,  and  our  own  people  began  to  acquire 
confidence.  So,  also,  the  great  body  of  the  old  laws  were  adopted,  and  our 
people  found  themselves  living  under  their  ancient  usages  and  customs,  and 
changed  in  nothing  but  their  federal  associates. 

In  the  election  of  Executive  officers,  also,  the  Convention  manifested  much 
wisdom  and  a  liberal  spirit.  While  statesmen  of  ripe  ability  were  selected, 
both  the  latest  divisions  of  parties  found  themselves  represented  in  the  per- 
sons of  leaders  having  no  superiors  in  their  ranks.  None  felt  proscribed,  and 
if  all  were  not  convinced  of  the  wisdom  and  necessity  of  separation,  all  were 
satisfied  that  the  destruction  of  constitutional  liberty  was  no  part  of  the  de- 
sign of  that  Convention,  and  that  the  shaping  of  the  new  government  had 
fallen  into  safe,  conservative  hands. 

But,  much  as  we  owe  to  the  wisdom  and  moderation  of  ou%  own  states- 
men, we  owe  much  more  to  the  folly  of  Mr.  Lincoln  and  his  advisers.  Left 
to  ourselves  we  never  could  have  accomplished  the  great  results  we  so  soon 
witnessed.  To  secure  the  confederation  of  those  who  had  so  emphatically 
refused  to  join  us  ;  to  remove  the  jealousies  and  heart-burnings  which  long 
party  divisions  had  fostered,  and  which  the  last  contest  for  separation  had 
not  allayed  but  increased  ;  to  break  the  affections  of  our  people  at  once  and 
forever  from  a  Union  which  they  had  always  loved,  and  connected  with 
which  were  so  many  delightful  memories  and  historic  glories  ;  these  formed 
a  task  for  which  all  ordinary  means  were  unequal.  If  Mr.  Lincoln  had  com- 
prehended the  crisis,  and  had  adopted  towards  the  seceded  States  a  pacific, 
instead  of  a  belligerent  policy;  had  shown  a  purpose  to  administer  the  gov- 
ernment according  to  the  just  and  equal  rule  of  the  Constitution,  instead  of 
the  hated  dogmas  of  a  mad  sectional  party,  the  border  States  would  not  have 
left  the  Union,  and  it  is  exceedingly  doubtful  whether  the  cotton  States 
would  have  remained  out  of  the  Union.  But  madness  and  folly  rnlefl 
our  enemies,  and  success  and  power  were  the  results  to  us.  In  April,  J8U1, 
Mr.  Lincoln  called  for  seventy  five  thousand  men  to  coerce  sovereign  States 
to  a  loathsome  sectional  rule,  and  by  this  giant  effort,  of  imbecility.  Virginia 
— glorious  old  Virginia — was  thrown  into  our  arms  wide  open  to  receive  her. 
Doubts  were  all  removed,  weakness  was  all  gone — we  weie  confident,  strong 
and  united  ;  Virginia  was  with  us.  Soon  the  great  States  of  North  Carolina, 
Tennessee  and  Arkansas  followed,  and  for  the  same  reasons.  At  once  Ave 
had  a  territory  not  surpassed  by  any  nation — large,  compact  and  fertile. 
Our  white  population  was  more  than  doubled,  our  resources  quadrupled. 
Munitions  of  war,  with  facilities  for  increasing  them,  were  added  in  great 
quantities,  and  though  terrible  war  was  the  agency  by  which  all  this  success 
was  acquired,  yet  with  the  war  came  to  us  the  power  to  meet  it.  The  same 
policy  which  added  thus  to  our  material  greatness,  produced  perfect  unity 
among  our  people,  removed  all  jealousies  and  divisions,  and  kindled  in  eve- 


ry  bosom  a  blaze  of  patriotism,  and  aroused  the  high  resolve  which  prepared 
all  for  those  noble  deeds  and  liberal  sacrifices  which  cannot  fail  to  insure  in- 
dependence and  nationality.  Missouri  and  Kentucky,  in  time,  were  added  to 
the  Confederacy,  and  though  those  great  States  labor  under  great  disadvan- 
tages, and  have,  the  heel  of  the  oppressor  heavily  on  them,  they  have  fur- 
nished many  of  the  noblest  heroes  and  most  gallant  spirits  who  have  hallow- 
ed our  cause  and  brought  glory  to  our  struggle.  In  heart  and  interest  they 
are  of  us,  and  must  be  in  destiny  with  us. 

Thus,  fellow-citizens,  in  a  few  short  months  we  had  adopted  our  Constitu- 
tion, framed  our  laws,  healed  our  divisions,  enlarged  our  borders,  multiplied 
our  resources,  and  exhibited  to  the  world  all  the  elemeuts  of  an  admirable 
government  in  successful  operation.  With  equal  rapidity  did  we  now  pre- 
pare to  defend  that  government  from  a  most  powerful  and  vindictive  foe. 
Our  success  in  this  respect  has  never  been  equalled  by  any  nation  or  people 
in  history.  The  best  evidence  of  this  may  be  found  in  the  confession^  of  our 
enemies  ;  for  the  greatest  tribute  ever  rendered  to  any  people  was  rendered 
to  the  Confederate  army  and  government  by  their  disappointed  and  defeated 
foe.  When  the  hosts  of  the  enemy  fled  in  fright  and  dismay  ln-fore  our  army 
of  heroes  on  the  ever  memorable  field  of  Manassas  Plains,  the  only  excuse 
they  could  find  for  their  discomfiture  was  in  shame  and  confusion  to  confess 
they  had  fought  before  they  were  ready.  Think  of  this  my  countrymen  ! 
An  old  government,  organized  for  three-fourths  of  a  century  ;  with  a  regular 
army  and  navy;  with  twenty  millions  of  people  and  countless  millions  of 
material  resources  ;  with  a  General  in  command  who  had  fought  his  hundred 
battles  and  had  never  known  defeat;  with  a  great  army  well  equipped  and 
full  of  confidence  ;  a  nation  vain  and  proud,  impatient  and  insolent;  apolo- 
gizing for  a  most  ignominious  defeat  in  sight  of  its  Capital,  by  a  despised 
band  of  improvised  rebels,  sent  out  by  a  government  less  than  six  months 
old;  and  finding  no  ground  of  apology  save  in  the  humiliating  conlession 
that  they  fought  too  soon — before  they  were  ready  !  Surely  a  fact  like  this 
should  satisfy  the  most  exacting  that  this  young  republic  had  been  most  vig- 
orous and  active,  most  vigilant  and  faithful. 

With  the  history  of  the  struggle  since  this  first  great  trial  of  arms  you  are 
all  familiar.  It  is  not  my  purpose  now  to  deal  with  incidents,  but  to  state  re- 
sults, and  show  the  way  to  correct  conclusions.  We  have  had  disasters,  at 
which  none  can  wonder.  But  we  have  had  successes,  many  and  great  suc- 
cesses, at  which  all  the  world  do  wonder;  at  which  posterity  will  never  cease 
to  wonder.  We  have  had  defeats  and  losses.  Considered  in  themselves 
they  have  been  sore  and  depressing.  The  good  and  the  noble  have  fallen, 
and  the  dark  shadows  of  sorrow  have  passed  over  the  door  sills  and  rest  by 
the  hearthstones  of  almost  every  home  in  the  land.  But  considered  in  the 
light  of  the  circumstances  which  surrounded  us.  and  in  view  of  the  effects 
upon  our  national  success,  I  affirm  that  all  our  disasters  are  as  nothing.  In- 
deed, when  impartial  hisrory  shall  weigh  this  struggle  in  the  balances  of  un- 
erring philosophy,  it  will  be  doubtful  whether  Mauassas  and  Leesburg,  or 
Fishing  Creek  and  Donelson  will  press  down  the  scales.  Failures  are  not 
always  losses,  and  blessings  sometimes  chastise.  But  in  the  Cabinet  and  in 
the  field  the  rule  has  been  success  and  defeat  the  exception.  In  every  respect 
we  have  steadily  progressed.  I  have  watched  this  revolution  anxiously  :  I 
have  scanned  the  chief  actors  critically  ;  my  own,  and  my  children's,  and  my 
country's  all,  are  wrapped  up  in  it ;  and  in  full  view  of  all  my  responsibili- 
ties, and  before  you  who  have  honored  me,  I  assert  this  night,  most  confi- 
dently, that  the  Confederate  States  have  strengthened  with  every  day  of  their 
existence;  yea,  though  it  be  early  morning  with  us,  every  hour  is  brighten- 
ing into  day.  There  is  no  apology  for  discouragement,  and  no  propriety  in 
grumbling. 

This  success,  this  progress,  is  not  the  glory  of  any  one  man,  nor  of  any  one 
agency,  but  is  the  work  of  many  men  and  the  result  of  several  causes.  No 
government  was  ever  defended  by  a  more  heroic  army.  From  the  humblest 
private  to  the  General  in  command,  they  are  above  praise.  Nor  can  history 
furnish  a  parallel  for  the  active,  demonstrative  patriotism  of  our  people..  I 
■doubt  whether  either  the  government  or  the  army  could  have  been  sustainsd 


75  1  1    o     i 


without  the  voluntary  azid  most  liberal  contribution*  of  the  people.  It  was 
not  possible  for  any  government  in  so  short  a  time  te  hare  provided  for  so 
large  an  array.  It  required  the  most  marvelous  energy  to  pass  the  necessary 
laws,  provide  appropriate  means,  and  to  organize  the  volunteering  multitudes 
and  discipline  them  for  the  fight.  Every  man,  every  woman,  and  every 
child  in  the  laud  became  an  assistant  commissary,  an  assistant  quartermaster 
and  a  volunteer  aid  in  every  part  of  the  glorious  work.  These  are  facts 
which  all  admit,  and  which  our  children  shall  celebrate  in  song  and  story  as 
long  as  liberty  is  prized  or  patriotism  is  honored.  Without  this  heroism  of 
our  army  and  generous  support  of  our  people  we  never  could  have  succeeded; 
but  with  these  alone,  great  as  they  were,  failure  would  necessarily  have  en- 
sued. Laws,  order,  system,  wise  policies,  skillful  plans,  and  vigorous  and 
judicious  administration  were  indispensable  to  success.  Without  these,  the 
first  would  have  produced  but  anarchy,  waste  and  ruin.  For  these  laws^ 
this  system,  and  this  vigorous  and  judicious  administration,  the  legislative 
and  Executive  departments  of  the  government  were  responsible.  Both  were 
equal  to  the  demands  of  the  fearful  occasion.  Neither  the  provisional  nor 
the  permanent  Congress  ever  failed  to  provide  every  necessary  law  and  all 
proper  means  to  meet  the  growing  and  ever-pressing  calls  of  the  contest. 
The  only  serious  charges  of  Avant  of  foresight  and  promptness  of  action 
which  have  been  made  against  the  Congress,  I  will  presently  show  were 
made  without  a  knowledge  of  the  facts,  and  by  the  answer  to  these  charges 
I  hope  minor  accusations  will  be  judged. 

In  republics  the  disaffected  and  the  dissatisfied  generally  level  their  shafts 
against  him  who  may  for  the  time  be  the  chief  Executive.  Different  con- 
clusions, which  are  always  formed  when  free  discussions  are  universal ;  pri- 
vate griefs,  which  must  exist  when  all  cannot  be  gratified  ;  personal  jealous- 
ies, which  will  arise  when  many  aspire  and  few  can  be  chosen,  must  be  ex- 
pected to  do  their  usual  share  of  fault-finding  in  the  new  Confederacy.  In 
addition  to  these  sources  of  discord,  inseparable  from  all  free  government, 
there  are  others  growing  out  of  our  anomalous  form  of  double  governments. 
In  the  nature  of  things  the  State  governments  will  be  jealous.  This  jealousy 
is  often  legitimate.  In  the  old  Union  there  were  many  occasions  when  the 
Southern  States  were  justly  resentful,  and  State  complaints  became  popular 
to  the  Southern  mind.  It 'is  not  strange,  therefore,  that  the  earnest  and  the 
ambitious — indeed  all  the  classes  first  mentioned— should  seek  to  invoke  the 
force  of  this  popular  feeling  in  their  behalf,  and  in  all  their  clamors  against 
the  Confederate  Government  and  the  Confederate  Executive,  in  season  and 
out  of  season,  to  cry  "  State  Eights."  Now,  gentlemen,  I  will  give  you 
frankly  my  opinion  of  our  first  President— Mr  Davis.  In  the  old  Union  he 
and  I  always  thought  differently  and  acted  with  different  political  parties.  I 
was  not  prepossessed  in  his  favor.  He  was  not  originally  my  first  choice  for 
his  present,  high  position.  Furthermore,  since  his  election, "if  a  single  old 
political  friend  of  mine,  in  this  State,  has  received  a  civil  commission  at  his 
hands,  1  am  to  this  hour  not  aware  of  the  fact,  .  These  things  are  not  calcu- 
lated to  win  a  favorable  judgment ;  but  I  experience  a  sense  of  self-respect 
when  I  realize  as  I  do  the  fact  that  I  am  capable  of  lifting  myself  above  all 
these  petty,  but  too  often  popular  considerations,  and  can  judge  the  Presi- 
dent by  the  merit  of  his  ability  and  patriotic  motives,  and  by  the  principles 
of  his  administration.  Thus  judging  him,  I  declare  to  you  that  if  I  had  now 
to  select  a  Chief  Magistrate  for  this  trying  crisis,  I  should  feel  it  a  duty  to 
select  Jefferson  Davis.  I  concede  the  charge  sneeringly  made,  that  he  is 
neither  a  Caesar,  nor  a  Cromwell,  nor  a  Napoleon.  He  is  nobler  than  either 
and  greater  th*u  all,  because  he  has  respect  unto  the  laws  of  the  land,  and 
seeks  to  establish  and  not  to  destroy  constitutional  government.  In  my 
opinion,  his  great  desire,  to  which  all  earthly  desires  are  subordinate,  is  our 
final  and  complete  success  in  this  revolution  Mr.  Lincoln,  with  all  the  ad- 
vantages of  a  long  organized,  powerful  and  well  supplied  government ;  State 
Executives,  even  in  the  Confederate  States,  not  having  upon  their  shoulders 
the  conduct  of  this  gigantic  war  ;  have  pleaded  necessity  as  an  excuse  for 
exercising  extraordinary  powers,  and  have  trampled  upon  constitutional  re- 
strictions and  individual  rights.    But  Mr.  Davis,  with  all  the  disadvantages 


of  a  new  and  weak  government  to  which  I  have  alluded,  and  with  th«  fear- 
ful doom  of  the  chief  of  trtdtors  full  before  him  in  case  of  failure,  lias  never 
yet  found  it  necessary  to  violate  the  Constitution  of  his  country,  nor  to 
trample  upon  the  rights  of  the  humblest  citizen.  Within  the  boundaries  of 
law,  by  the  provisions  of  legislative  grant,  and  according  to  the  high  and 
ancient  privileges  of  Anglo-American  freemen,  he  has  used  the  sword  to  the 
shame  and  discomfiture  of  a  million  of  enemies  in  arms.  By  a  vigorous  pol- 
icy he  has  led  a  new-born  nation  from  weakness  to  power.  By  a  firm  but 
humane  adherence  to  the  great  principles  of  nations  into  whose  family  we 
had  been  refused  admittance,  he  has  degraded  the  faithless  excesses  of  our 
adversary  to  universal  notoriety  and  perpetual  infamy.  And  by  the  wisdom 
of  an  accomplished  statesmanship,  and  the  pure  rhetoric  of  an  elegant  pen, 
he  has  secured  admiration  and  esteem  for  himself  and  his  countrymen  in  the 
highest  Cabinets  and  most  refined  Courts  of  the  civilized  world.  Even  our 
eunuies,  usually  so  bigoted  and  selfish,  are  driven  in  shame  to  apply  every 
epithet  of  ridicule  to  the  awkward  blunders  of  their  President,  and  to  admit 
the  ability,  the  tact  and  the  statesmanship  of  the  "rebel  chief." 

A  wise  government,  then,  a  gallant  army,  and  a  liberal,  cordial  and  united 
people,  constitute  together  the  cause  of  our  progress,  the  assurance  of  our 
success,  and  our  title  to  admiration  and  renown. 

In  a  republic  of  free  opinions,  where  the  minds  of  men  are  as  variant  as 
the  leaves  on  the  trees,  and  as  unrestrained  as  the  zephyrs  that  fan  them,  we 
have  much  cause  to  be  gratified  that  so  few  issues  have  been  made  with  the 
administration |  and  that  the  issues  made  have  found  so  few  advocates.  On 
almost  all  questions  our  people  are  unanimous.  Politicians  have  prepared 
a  few  issues.  None,  thus  far,  have  been  accepted  or  taken  up  by  the  people 
Complaints  are  few,  and  some  of  the  few  may  be  traced  to  causes  outside  of 
th^  merits  of  the  questions  involved. 

It  has  been  snid  that  the  Navy  Department  has  not  done  its  duty.  In  my 
opinion,  no  portion  of  our  people  are  more  patriotic  than  the  navy,  and  no 
portion  of  the  government  has  been  managed  with  more  industry,  under  the 
disadvantages  to  which  it  has  been  subjected,  than  the  naval.  Much  of  the 
work  and  policy  of  this  department  is  necessarily  kept  trom  the  public.  The 
people,  or  rather  some  persons,  condemn  because  they  do  not  know,  and  the 
Secretary  must  submit  in  silence,  because  to  defend  would  be  to  expose  and 
damage  the  public  service.  But  it  docs  seem  to  me  the  people  have  seen 
enough  to  satisfy  them — even  to  excite  their  gratitude  and  pride. 

When  this  revolution  began,  all  said  we  could  expect  nothing  from  the 
nary.  We  had  no  navy.  We  had  neither  time  nor  materials  to  build  one, 
nor  means  to  purchase  one.  But  while  the  whole  country  was  resting  satis- 
fied that  we  could  do  but  little  on  the-  water,  the  navy  was  at  work,  and  all  at 
once  the  country  was  waked  up,  the  world  was  waked  up,  by  the  grandest 
naval  achievement  in  all  history.  Like  Minerva,  full  grown  and  full  armed 
at  her  birth,  the  iron-clad  Virginia  leaped  to  life,  and  in  a  day  taught  the 
world  a  lesson  in  naval  warfare,  the  wonder  of  which  mythology  had  never 
imagined  nor  centuries  of  science  discovered.  At  once  hundreds  of  sea 
monsters,  long  terrible  on  the  water,  were  shown  to  be  worthless.  Nautical 
science  is  conning  her  rules  anew,  and  to  re  model,  re-arrauge,  and  build 
again  condemned  war  vessels,  engages  the  energies  of  every  nation  which 
aspires  to  dominion  on  the  seas.  The  necessities  which  required  the  de- 
struction of  such  vessels  as  the  Virginia  and  the  Mississippi  were  great  mis- 
fortunes to  us ;  but  the  misfortunes  were  gnat  in  precise  proportion  as  the 
works  were  powerful.  If  the  Virginia  and  the  Mississippi  had  not  been  con- 
structed we  should  not  have  known  how  great  was  their  loss.  Those  who 
produced  them  could  not  have  been  dull  or  idle.  Regrets  for  losses  caused 
by  the  necessities  of  our  condition  as  a  naval  power,  cannot  justify  us  in 
blaming  those  who  have  done  so  much  to  improve  that  condition.  The  mag- 
nitude of  our  losses  is  known  only  by  the  splendor  of  our  successes.  Impar- 
tial history  will  do  justice  to  this  department  of  our  government,  and  cotem- 
poraneous  history  is  never  impartial  and  rarely  truthful.  While,  in  this  re- 
spect, we  have  not  done  what  all  desired,  yet  all  candid  minds  must  confess 
we  have  done  far  more  than  any,  in  the  beginning  anticipated. 


The  military  appointments  of  the  administration  also,  at  one' time,  excited 
some  dissatisfaction.  Lee,  and  Johnston,  and  Jackson,  and  Longstreet,  and 
the  two  Hills,  and  many  others,  have  silenced  these  complaints.  Natural  en- 
dowments are  great  helps  in  all  the  positions  of  life,  but  education  improves 
all  talents,  including  the  military.  Upon  this  idea  I  presume  the  President 
acted  in  making  appointments,  and  in  a  great  majority  of  cases  results  have 
vindicated  the  wisdom  of  the  rule. 

For  several  months  there  was  a  zealous  clamor  for  an  invasion  of  the  North. 
The  administration  was  censured,  in  some  quarters  acrimoniously  censured, 
for  not,  at  once,  invading  the  enemy's  territory.  Wonderful  campaigns  were 
planned;  armies  vanquished,  States  humbled,  cities  destroyed,  and  the  ene- 
my forced  to  sue  for  peace,  by  generals  who  remained  at  home,  and  by 
statesmen  who  wrote  much,  thought  little,  and  knew  less.  Upon  this  sub- 
ject, I  confess  to  you  I  once  felt  much  anxiety.  The  appeal  was  plausible 
to  the  passion  and  vengeance  of  our  people,  who  had  so  much  cause  for  pas- 
sion and  revenge.  All  the  impulses  of  resentment  were  aroused,  and  pru- 
dence and  wise  counsel  were  in  danger  of  being  overwhelmed.  By  invasion, 
^lnder  the  disadvantages  which  surrounded  us,  we  should  have  been  ruined 
speedily  and  forever.  On  our  own  soil  and  in  defense,  we  have  ever  been 
and  will  ever  be  invincible.  Recent  events  have  satisfied  all  of  this  truth, 
and  on  this  subject  there  is  no  longer  any  danger  of  divisions  among  our 
people. 

I  can  now  remember  but  one  more  issue  upon  which  an  attempt  has  been 
made  to  excite  an  opposition  to  the  administration  of  the  government.  The 
occasion  for  this  attempt  is  found  in  the  acts  of  Congress  known  as  the  Con- 
scription Laws.  This  disaffection  has  proven  to  be  limited  in  extent,  and 
must  soon  pass  away,  and,  like  the  other  attempts  to  which  1  have  alluded, 
will  be  remembered  only  to  be  regretted.  The  relation  which  I  bear  to  this 
legislation,  and  to  this  State,  in  which  the  greatest  clamor  (indeed,  the  only 
real  clamor)  has  been  made  against  the  legislation,  requires  that  I  present 
my  own  views  upon  the  questions  made. 

Before  entering  upon  the  argument,  I  desire  to  rehearse  some  facts  which 
will  most  effectually  expose  the  fallacy  of  some  charges  which  have  been 
made  and  often  repeated  against  the  President  and  the  Congress  in  relation 
to  the  necessities  which  produced  the  resort  to  conscription  to  maintain  our 
armies. 

It  has  been  said  that  there  was  no  occasion  for  the  passage  of  these  laws  ; 
that  the  spirit  of  volunteering  was  ample  to  keep  up  the  army  ;  that,calls  on 
the  States  would  have  secured  all  the  troops  needed  ;  and  that,  if  at  the  time 
these  laws  were  adopted  the  necessity  did  exist,  that  necessity  was  brought 
about  by  the  negligence  and  want  of  foresight  in  the  Provisional  Congress, 
and  from  a  desire  on  the  part  of  the  government  to  have  an  excuse  to  resort 
to  conscription.  These  charges  are  so  utterly  untrue — so  utterly  at  variance 
with  the  very  records  of  the  government,  that  I  must  presume  the  authors 
were  entirely  ignorant  of  the  legislation  of  Congress  and  the  acts  of  the  gov- 
ernment. I  am  not  willing  to  believe  that  men  in  position  would  originate 
or  repeat  such  grave  charges  with  a  knowledge  of  the  facts.  As  I  was  the 
humblest  of  the  actors,  it  is  becoming  in  me  to  invite  your  attention  to  a 
simple  recital  of  history. 

As  early  as  the  28th  day  of  February,  1861,  an  act  was  passed  "  to  raise 
Provisional  Forces  for  the  Confederate  States  of  America,  and  for  other  pur- 
poses," and  by  this  act  the  President  was  authorized  to  receive  into  the  ser 
vice  of  this  Government  such  forces  in  the  service  of  the  States  as  may  be 
tendered,  or  who  may  volunteer,  by  consent  Of  their  State,  in  such  numbers 
as  he  may  require,  tor  any  time  not  less  than  twelve  months,  unless  sooner 
discharged."  The  troops  raised  by  the  States  and  turned  over,  were  to  be 
received  "according  to  the  terms  of  their  enlistment." 

On  the  6th  day  of  March.  1861,  an  act  was  passed,  "to  provide  for  the 
Public  Defense,"  and  by  the  act  the  President  was  "  authorized  to  ask  for 
and  accept  the  services  of  any  number  of  volunteers,  not  exceeding  one  hun- 
dred thousand,  to  serve  for  twelve  months  unless  sooner  discharged." 

On  the  8th  of  May  an  act  was  passed  "  to  raise  an  additional  military  force 


to  serve  during  the  war,"  and  under  this  act  the  President  is  authorized  to 
accept  volunteers  icithout  limit,  and  for  every  arm  of  the  service. 
^  But  very  many  complaints  came  up  to  Congress  that  some  of  the  State 
Governors  were  exceedingly  partial  in  the  tender  and  organization  of  the 
regiments  under  former  acts— that  they  were  using  their  powers  to  put  for- 
ward their  friends  and  promote  themselves— and  that  many  who  offered  reg- 
iments and  companies  to  the  Governors  were  either  rejected  or  discriminated 
against  in  some  odious  manner,  and  that  arms,  then  scarce,  were  furnished 
only  to  favorites.  To  remedy  these  complaints,  and  secure  the  services  of 
all  these  gallant  men,  Congress,  on  the  11th  day  of  May.  186],  passed  an  act 
"to  make  further  provision  for  the  Public  Defense,"  and  authorized  the  Pres- 
ident to  receive  such  volunteers  as  may  tender  themselves,  and  he  may  re- 
quire, "without  the  delay  of  a  formal  call  upon  the  respective  States,  to  serve 
lor  such  time  as  he  may  prescribe." 

It  was  under  one  of  these  last  acts— the  first  for  the  war— that  the  gallant 
Bartow  tendered  his  company  of  Oglethorpes  and  was  accepted.  I  believe 
his  was  the  first  company  enlisted  fur  the  war. 

On  the  8th  of  August,  1861,  an  act  was  passed  "further  to  provide  for  the 
Public  Defense,"  by  which  the  President  was  authorized  to  accept  four  hun- 
dred thousand  volunteers  for  not  less  than  twelve  months  nor  more  than 
three  years,  unless  sooner  discharged. 

There  was  a  clamor  from  some  quarters  that  certain  localities  were  not  de- 
fended, and  that  many  persons  would  enlist  for  the  defense  of  particular  lo- 
calities, who  would  not  volunteer  in  the  general  service;  and  that  many 
persons  would  be  useful  on  special  service,  who  would  not  enlist  to  be  sent 
oft  to  unknown  and  discretionary  service.  Therefore,  on  the  SJlst  of  August, 
186],  an  act  was  passed  "to  provide  for  local  defense  and  special  service," 
by  which  the  President  was  authorized  "to  accept  the  services  of  volunteers, 
of  such  kind  and  in  such  proportion  as  he  may  deem  expedient,  to  serve  for 
such  time  as  he  may  prescribe,  for  the  defense  of  exposed  places  or  localities, 
or  such  special  service  as  he  may  deem  expedient."  Mich  forces  were  to  be 
mustered  into  the  service  of  the  Confederate  States,  "for  such  local  defense 
or  special  service,  the  muster-roll  setting  forth  distinctly  the  cervices  to  be 
formed.  '  Under  this  act  I  affirm,  with  knowledge,  that  the  Confederate 
Government  was  always  willing  and  desirous  of  employing  all  necessary 
troops  tor  all  local  defense  of  each  State— to  incur  all  the  expenses  of  such 
defense,  and  relieve  the  separate  States  of  all  necessity  to  incur  such  enor- 
mous expenses. 

Again,  on  the  22d  January,  1802,  an  act  was  passed  authorizing  the  Presi- 
dent to  accept  volunteers  "  singly,  as  well  as  in  companies,  squadrons,  bat- 
talions, or  regiments." 

Thus,  gentlemen  and  fellow-citizens,  you  will  perceive  that  Congress 
adopted  every  conceivable  mode  of  getting  volunteers.  Even  the  humors  of 
States  and  the  caprices  of  individuals  were  all  consulted.  If  men  wished  to 
come  by  tender  through  the  States,  there  was  the  law.  If  directly,  by  offer 
to  the  President,  there  wasthe  law.  If  as  cavalry,  artillery,  infantry,  or  mixture 
of  all,  or  even  as  independent  partizaus,  there  was  the  law.  If  they  wished  to 
volunteer  for  three,  six,  or  twelve  mouths,  for  three  years,  for  the  war,  or  for 
any  other  time,  there  was  the  law.  If  thev  wished  to  enter  the  general  service 
or  to  be  enlisted  t©  defend  a  particular  State,  or  county,  or  city,  or  town,  or 
farm,  or  fireside,  there  was  the  law.  If  they  wisked  to  come  in  legions,  or 
regiments,  or  battalions,  or  squadrons,  or  companies,  or  even  singly — all 
alone  and  all  ablaze  with  patriotism— there  was  the  law  precisely  fitting  the 
case,  and  made  to  fit  the  case.  Come  !— it  matters  not  how,  it  matters  not 
from  where,  it  matters  not  with  whom,  it  matters  not  for  how  long— come, 
o  ome,  and  come  quickly,  and  defend  our  invaded  country— was,  and  is,  and 
has  ever  been  the  earnest  appeal  of  the  government— the  President  and  the 
Congress—to  all  our  people !  Will  any  complaining,  far-seeing  assailant 
tell  me  what  other  form  of  tender  or  acceptance  Congress  could  have  adopt- 
ed to  encourage  men  to  volunteer  ? 

Under  these  various  acts   of  Congress  we  raised  in   the  aggregate  about 
Jour  hundred  regiments  |  very  few  if  any,  however,  filled  to  the  maximum 


10 

number.  We  could  raise  ne  more  without  other  and  extraordinary  means. 
It  is  a  glorious  tribute  to  the  patriotism  of  our  people  that  we  raised  so  many 
and  so  speedily  by  roluntary  enlistment.  It  was  certainly  sufficient  for  any 
other  war  ot  modern  times,  if  not  for  any  age  of  the  world.  But  our  enemy 
was  growing  stronger.  A  million,  full  of  rage  and  hate,  wore  flying  to  arms 
to  enslave  us.  Our  own  ranks  began  to  grow  thin.  Skeleton  regiments 
were  seen  in  every  direction,  and  about  half  of  them  were  soon  to  disband 
by  reason  of  the  expiration  of  their  term  of  service. 

Something  must,  therefore,  be  done  to  give  now  life  to  these  modes  of  se- 
curing volunteers  which  I  have  recited,  and  to  retain  those  already  in  service. 
Very  early  the  Congress  entered  on  this  work.  To  this  end  on  the  11th  day 
of  December,  1861,  an  act  was  passed  known  as  the  Bounty  and  Furlough 
act.  By  this  act  fifty  dollars  was  paid  to  every  private  and  non-commission- 
ed officer  in  service,  who  would  remain  in  service  for  three  years  from  the 
original  enlistment,  or  for  the  war;  and  to  every  man  who  would  volunteer 
or  enlist  in  the  service  for  three  years  or  far  the  war.  Also,  each  twelve 
months  soldier  re-enlisting  was  to  have  a  furlough  for  sixty  days,  with  trans- 
portation home  and  back.  Such  as  did  not  wish  to  go  home  were  to  have 
the  commutation  value  of  the  transportation  in  money;  and  even  those 
who  had  been  in  separate  State  service  were  included  in  the  provisions  of 
the  law.  Onthe  19th  day  of  December,  1861,  an  act  was  passed  which 
authorized  the  Secretary  of  War  "  to  adopt  measures  for  recruiting  and  en- 
listing men  for  companies  in  service  for  the  war,  or  for  three  years,  which 
by  the  casualties  of  the  service  have  been  reduced  by  death  and  discharges/' 

But  it  was  said  that   many  would   not  join  existing  organizations,   who 
would,  if  encouraged,  volunteer  in  new  ones,  and  thus  have  an  opportunity 
.  either  to  be  chosen  or  to  choose  officers,  &c. 

So,  on  the  22d  day  of  January,  186:2,  Congress  passed  an  act  authorizing 
the  President  "  to  appoint  and  commission  persons  as  field  officers  or  Cap- 
tains to  raise  regiments,  squadrons,  battalions  or  companies,  and  all  persons 
thus  enlisted  by  them  were  to  have, in  addition  to  bounty,  "pay,  transpor- 
tation and  subsistence  from  the  date  of  the  organization  of  the  Company." 

Again,  a  general  authority  to  organize  a  recruiting  system  not  proving 
sufficient,  Congress  by  the  last  act  also  authorized  one  commissioned  and  one 
non-commissioned  officer,  and  one  or  more  privates  from  each  Company  for 
three  years  or  the  war,  to  be  detailed  for  the  express  purpose  of  going  home 
to  recruit  men  for  the  Company.  And  on  the  27th  of  January,  1862,  an  act 
was  passed  authorizing  three  details  of  an  officer  and  two  privates  to  recruit 
for  the  companies  originally  enlisted  for  twelve  months. 

So,  we  not  only  provided  every  mode  for  volunteering  which  even  caprice 
could  suggest,  but  also  offered  every  inducement  and  stimulant  that  ability 
would  allow  or  ingenuity  could  devise.  Men  were  not  only  received  and  re- 
ceived in  their  own  way,  but  they  were  sent  for  and  begged  to  come.  Tried 
veterans  filled  the  country  urging  those  at  home  to  join  their  glorious  ranks. 
Money  was  freely  offered,  and  ambition  was  commissioned  to  employ  all  its 
energies  in  raising  regiments,  battalions,  squadrons  and  companies  to  secure 
command.  All  failed.  Our  army  was  still  thinning  and  the  enemy  still  in- 
creasing. 

Even  yet  the  government  was  not  willing  to  giva  up  the  favorite  popular 
system  of  raising  and  keeping  an  army  by  voluntary  enlistment. 

One  more  method  was  resorted  to — the  one  about  which  we  hear  so  much 
from  men  who  do  not  seem  to  know  what  has  been  done. 

On  the  23d  of  January,  1862,  an  act  was  passed  authorizing  the  President 
li  to  call  on  the  several  States  for  troops  to  serve  for  three  years  or  during  the 
war."  This  is  the  plan  which  we  are  flippantly  told  would  accomplish 
every  thing.  And  the  Congress  and  the  President  are  abused  for  not  adopt- 
ing this  plan.  Well,  Congress  did  pass  the  act,  and  the  President  did  make 
the  call,  and  let  us  see  what  was  accomplished  and  how  it  was  done. 

The  quota  required  of  Georgia,  I  believe  was  twelve  thousand,  and  as 
our  State  seems  to  have  made  as  much  effort,  and  as  much  noise  about  her 
efforts  as  any  other  State,  I  will  take  Georgia  as  the  test.  The  quota  for 
Georgia  was  filled,  and  we  are  told  there  was  a  large  excess.    If  this  were 


11 

all,  the  argument  might  be  worth  something.  Bat  how  were  those  troops 
raised  ? 

In  the  first  place  I  6tate  a  fact  of  which  you  are  not  probably  aware. — 
Soon  after  this  call  was  made  the  Q  orernor  sent  a  request,  or  perhaps  a  pro- 
test to  the  Secretary  of  War  that  no  more  troops  should  be  raised  in  Georgia 
by  persons  having  commissions  for  that  purpose  under  the  act  to  which  I 
have  referred,  until  this  requisition  was  filled  ;  and  a  number  of  regiment? 
partially  raised  were  only  saved  from  being  disbanded  by  the  Secretary 
agreeing  that  they  should  be  credited  to  Georgia  as  part  of  the  quota  requir- 
ed under  the  call.  I  do  not  state  this  to  blame  the  Governor,  but  it  is  a  fact 
which  shows  that  he  thought,  he  would  be  unable  to  raise  the  quota  if  these 
commissions  were  continued,  and  that  there  would  be  difficulty  in  filling  the 
requisition.  But  even  with  this  help,  how  did  the  Governor  proceed.  I 
have  not  the  proclamation  beforo  me,  but  I  cannot  mistake  or  forget  its  char- 
acter, lie  allotted  a  proportion  to  each  county,  and  designated  a  day  when 
all,  I  believe,  of  the  militia  age,  should  be  called  out,  and  the  offer  should 
be  made  for  volunteers.  If  they  volunteered,  all  well:  if  not  they  were  to 
be  drafted — conscribrd ,  and  this  is  the  first  instance  of  practical  conscription 
during  this  revolution  in  the  Confederate  States  known  to  me.  The  system 
proposed  by  the  Governor  in  one  feature  is  similar  to  the  conscription  acts, 
for  those  acts  give  every  man  an  opportunity  to  avoid  conscription  by  volun- 
teering. But  in  all  other  respects  the  conscription  acts  are  far  preferable 
and  more  in  accordance  with  the  genius  of  our  institutions.  Mr.  Davis 
would  never  think  ot  ordering  a  draft  or  conscription  without  legislative 
authority.  The  Governor  had  no  authority  of  law  for  his  order.  Nothing 
was  ever  more  illegal.  Again,  his  draft  classified  very  arbitrarily,  if  not 
worse,  and  by  executive  order  limited  the  right  of  suffrage — thus  making  a 
refusal  voluntarily  to  respond  to  an  executive  call  an  occasion  for  forcible 
seizure  of  the  person — a  discriminating  seizure  of  persons,  and  an  excuse 
for  depriving  the  persons  so  seized  of  the  right  to  vote — all,  I  repeat,  without 
legislative  authority  !  I  refer  to  these  facts,  not  to  make  a  charge  against 
the  Governor,  but  to  show  how  these  troops  wore  raised,  and  how  little  of 
the  volunteer  spirit  was  manifested.  Other  States,  I  am  informed  never  did 
fill  the  requisitions  of  tho  President.     How  many  I  do  not  know. 

Do  you  suppose  your  members  of  Congress  did  not  observe  the  illegal  pro- 
cess adopted  in  Georgia  for  filling  this  requisition?  And  would  they  have 
been  wise  to  have  supposed  another  requisition  could  be  filled  by  volunteering! 
They  would  have  merited  and  would  have  received  universal  execration,  and 
those  who  now  condemn  for  what  was  done  would  have  taken  the  lead  in 
the  execration. 

Again,  it  has  been  charged  that  Congress  showed  a  great  want  of  foresight 
in  receiving  so  many  men  for  twelve  months,  and  that  from  the  beginning 
they  ought  to  have  received  volunteers  only  for  the  war,  and  this  would  have 
saved  the  trouble  about  the  twelve  months  regiments. 

By  reference  to  the  acts  of  Congress  as  I  have  enumerated  them,  you  will 
see  that  the  two  acts  under  which  twelve  months  troops  were  accepted  were 
passed,  one  on  the  28th  of  February  and  the  other  one  on  the  6th  Ot  March, 
1861.  The  first  simply  authorized  the  troops  to  be  accepted  by  the  President 
which  had  been  raised  by,  and  were  in  the  service  of  the  States,  and  they 
were  to  be  received  on  the  terms  of  their  enlistment — of  course  by  the  State 
laws  before  the  confederation.  Thus,  most  of  these  men  were  raised  by  the 
States— those  governments  that  always  do  right;  and  the  want  of  foresight 
is  charged  on  the  Congress  by  State  rights  men. 

Again  both  these  acts  were  passed  before  there  was  any  war,  and  at  a  time 
when  most  of  our  statesmen,  and  especially  those  who  charge  the  Congress 
with  a  want  of  foresight,  were  telling  us  there  would  be  no  war.  They 
abuse  the  Congress  for  not  raising  troops  to  serve  during  the  war,  when  there 
was  no  war,  and  they  were  telling  us  there  would  be  no  war  !  Yet,  ridicu- 
lous as  it  is,  this  is  about  the  fairest  charge  made  against  the  government. 
As  I  think  we  ought  to  have  known  that  there  would  be  a  war— a  bloody 
war — and  we  ought  to  have  raised  troops  accordingly.  Nevertheless,  we  have 
done  well  and  all  ought  to  be  satisfied. 


12 

Thus,  every  plan  for  authorizing  volunteers  had  been  tried  ;  every  induce- 
ment had  been  offered  which  the  government  was  able  to  offer;  every  appeal 
had  been  made,  and  still  our  regiments  were  but  skeletons.  Still,  half  those 
regiments  were  going  out  of  the  service.  .  Roanoke  and  Fishing  Creek,  and 
Donelson  and  Nashville  had  covered  the  land  like  so  many  thick  palls  of 
darkness.  On  every  side  the  enemy  was  gathering,  boasting,  pressing,  robbing 
and  destroying.  A  mighty  army,  which  no  man  could  number,  was  rushing 
to  our  classic  Peninsular,  and  wild  with  the  thought  of  sacking  our  capital, 
and  destroying  our  people  as  the  hungry  locusts  devour  the  grass  blades  in 
their  pathway.  Still,  still,  the  heavy  heart-crushing  fact  came  back  to  your 
Congress  and  to  your  President,  that  our  regiments  were  but  skeletons  ;  half 
of  these  would  soon  go  home,  and  none  were  coming  to  take  their  places. 
The  people  did  not  and  could  not  see  and  feel  these  facts  as  did  those  in 
authority  who  were  entrusted  by  the  people  to  keep  faithful  watch  in  that 
dark  and  stormy  hour. 

There  was  no  remedy  left  but  to  keep  all  the  regiments  and  organizations 
we  had,  and  fill  them  up.  by  a  system  of  compulsory  enlistment,  and  that 
remedy  to  be  effective  must  be  speedy   and  thorough. 

But  it  is  said  this  legislation  is  unconstitutional.  That  Congress  had  no 
power  to  raise  an  army  by  compulsion.  Well,  if  this  be  true  then  the  gov- 
ernment was  a  failure.  We  had  no  government— no  Confederate  Govern- 
ment. And  what  a  spectacle  would  we  thus  have  presented  to  the  nations 
of  the  earth.  We  were  asking  them  to  recognize  us  as  a  nation — to  receive  us 
into  their  family  as  an  independent  member.  To  entitle  us  to  be  so  recog- 
nized and  received,  it  is  necessary  by  the  established  laws  of  nations,  that 
we  show  to  the  nations  that  we  have  a  government  capable  of  commanding 
the  obedience  of  our  own  citizens,  and  capable  of  repelling  the  assaults  of 
foreign  foes.  That  foreign  foe  was  assaulting  us  most  heavily.  We  had  de- 
fended—nobly defended  by  voluntary  enlistment,  until  tha*;  system  had  ex- 
hausted its  strength.  We  must  command  to  the  fight  or  fail.  If  we  had  no 
right  to  command,  the  Confederated  States  was  a  demonstrated  failure,  both 
as  to  internal  government  and  external  power. 

But  why.  upon  what  ground  is  this  legislation  unconstitutional  ? 

First,  because  it  is  said  to  be  contrary  to  individual  liberty,  and  oppressive 
upon  individual  rights.  Government,  it  is  said,  has  no  right  to  force  men 
from  their  homes  and  business,  and  compel  them  to  defend  their  country. 
This  is  a  strange  notion  of  liberty.  Men  owe  obligations  as  well  as  possess 
rights.  The  performance  of  obligation  is  the  preservation  of  rights,  and  th« 
only  security  to  liberty.  Government  is  formed  for  mutual  defence,  and  every 
member  of  government  is  under  a  paramount  obligation  to  defend  it  as  a 
very  condition  to  his  right  to  protection  by  the  government.  He  who  will  not 
defend,  has  no  claim  to  protection.  To  require  a  citizen  to  defend  his  gov- 
ernment from  hostile  attack  is  not  to  deprive  him  of  his  liberty,  but  to  re- 
quire him  to  perform  his  obligation,  and  to  defend  liberty  and  all  the  rights 
of  society.  But  it  is  flippantly  said,  that  governments  derive  their  just 
powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed,  and,  therefore,  there  can  be  no 
power  where  there  is  no  consent.  What  an  argument  for  a  statesman  ! 
Governments  do  derive  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed, 
but  do  they  exercise  their  derived  powers  only  by  the  consent  of  the  govern- 
ed? When  you  call  a  man  from  his  home  and  business,  and  make  him  a 
juror  to  settle  other  men's  disputes,  and  fine  and  imprison  him  if  he  does  not 
obey,  do  you  ask  him  if  he  consented  to  the  law  under  which  he  is  summoned 
and  compelled  to  attend?  When  you  require  a  citizen  to  work  the  highway 
and  public  roads,  do  you  ask  him  if  he  consented^ to  the  road  laws  ?  Yet 
military  duty  is  far  higher  than  these,  for  if  the  country  is  not  defended,  all 
other  rights  are  destroyed  and  all  duties  consequently  discharged. 
,  Thus,  it  is  a  well  established  principle,  which  you  will  find  in  every 
standard  author  on  government,  that  the  obligation  is  on  every  man  equally 
with  his  neighbor  to  render  military  service.  No  man  is  exempt  except  by 
law.  Can  a  man  be  discharged  from  his  obligation  simply  because  he  is 
unwilling  to  perform  it?  Are  the  willing  to  bear  all  the  burden  of  defend- 
ing the  country  ?     Can  no  man  be  a  soldier  but  a  volunteer  ?    Is  want  of 


13 

will,  or  withholding  of  consent,  to  relieve  from  duty  ?  When  people  form 
a  government  they  may  say  whether  that  government  shall  be  democratic, 
aristocratic  or  monarchical.  They  may  say,  as  their  theory,  that  all  power  is 
derived  from  the  people,  or  resides  in  a  crnwn.  But  when  the  government  is 
formed,  when  the  powers  are  conferred,  it  is  the  duty  of  those  entrusted 
with  the  powers  to  exercise  them,  and  it  is  the  duty,  the  virtue  and  the  pa- 
triotism of  the  citizen  to  obey.  A  citizen  is  under  as  much  obligation  to 
defend  a  republic  as  a  subject  a  crown,  and  the  greater,  since  the  republic  is 
formed  by  his  consent.  Originally  when  government  declared  war,  the 
very  declaration  of  war  made  every  man  a  soldier.  No  special  act  was  re- 
quired to  make  him  a  soldier.  The  act  of  war  ipso  facto  made  him  a  soldier. 
None  but  women,  children  and  invalids  are  natural  exempts.  But  all  were 
not  needed  for  the  army  ;  aud  besides  it  was  important  that  some  should 
produce  provisions.  Now,  who  shall  say  that  this  man  must  be  a  soldier 
and  another  must  remain  at  home  ?  In  other  words  who  shall  raise  the  army? 
You  cannot  leave  it  to  the  individuals— the  consent  of  the  governed.  Who 
can  determine  this  but  the  government— the  power  that  declares  the  war? 
Thus  has  sprung  up  the  necessity  for  legislation  to  declare  who  shall  be  a 
soldier,  to  fix  exemptions,  and  to  ascertain  the  non-combatants.  For  under 
the  laws  of  nations  these  non-combatants  are  entitled  to  many  privileges, 
even  to  non-interference  by  the  enemy  with  their  persons  and  property. 
These  principles  are  so  familiar  to  students  on  government  that.  I  am  amazed, 
that  any  one  should  assert  a  theory  directly  in  the  face  of  them. 

N<>,  my  countrymen,  it  is  every  man's  duty,  and  should  be  his  pleasure  to 
defend  the  government  of  his  choice.  No  man  has  a  right  to  say,  "You 
shall  go.  because  you  arc  willing,  and  I  will  stay  because  I  am  unwilling  to 
go."  Willing  or  uuwilling  the  duty  is  the  same,  and  the  government  alone 
can  systematize  and  enforce  the  obligation. 

But.  it  is  objected,  secondly,  that  the  States  alone  can  exercise  this  power 
of  compelling  military  service,  and  that  the  exereise  by  the  Confederate 
Government  is  a  violation  of  the  rights  of  the  States. 

There  is  certainly  a  plain  and  easy  method  of  settling  this  question. 
Is  this  power  delegated  or  reserved?  If  delegated,  it  belongs  to  the  Confede- 
rate Government;  if  reserved,  it  belongs  to  the  States.  The  Constitution  — 
the  grant— is  the  only  test  That,  most  explicitly  declares  that  Congress 
shall  have  power  "to  declare  war,''  and  "to  raise  and  support  armies."  Here 
ends  the  argument,  but,  strange  to  say,  not  the  controversy.  Men  who  claim 
to  favor  strict  construction,  to  oppose  interpolation,  now  begin  to  construe 
and  to  interpolate.  They  say  the  Constitution  means  that  Congress  shall  have 
power  "to  raise  armies'  by  voluntary  tnlistmtnt.  By  what  authority  of  fact 
or  logic  arc  these  words  added  ?  Again,  men  who  love  controversy,  say  the 
Constitution  means  that  Congress  shall  have  power  '-to  raise  armies':  by  calls 
on  the  States.  By  what  authority  are  these  words  added  !  These  broad  and 
destructive  interpolations  upon  the  Constitution  are  not  only  without  excuse, 
but  in  the  very  teeth  of  history.  Under  the  articles  of  Confederation,  the 
General  Government  was  dependent  on  the  will  of  the  States  for  troops,  and 
the  system  worked  so  badly,  even  during  the  revolutionary  war,  that  the 
framers  of  the  Constitution  determined  to  get  rid  of  it,  and  did  get  rid  of  it 
in  the  most  clear  intelligent  and  emphatic  manner. 

When  the  Convention  were  engaged  in  framing  the  Constitution .  the  very 
question  of  what  powers  should  be  limited  and  what  not  limited,  was  before 
them.  Every  power  delegated  was  considered  separately,  and  the  necessary 
limitations  were  also  considered,  and  the  intention  was  to  leave  no  words  out 
which  it  was  proper  to  insert :  Hence  eight  of  the  eighteen  powers  are  re- 
stricted and  qualified  in  the  very  terms  of  the  grant  The  power  to  raise  and 
support  armies  is  limited  as  to  the  latter  branch — support.  "No  appropria- 
tion of  money  for  that  purpose  shall  be  for  a  longer  period  than  two  years." 
Now,  the  power  to  raise  armies  is  the  m;ijor  proposition,  and  either  of  the 
limitations  now  proposed  to  be  inserted,  is  greater  than  the  limitation  upon 
the  power  to  support.  Did  the  clumsy  framers  insert  the  minor  qualification 
and  leave  out.  the  greater  ? 

But  it  is  again  said  that  this  power  to  "raise  armies"  is  limited  by  the  pow- 


u 

er  to  cull  out  the  militia.  With  all  due  deference,  I  must  say  this  confound- 
ing the  army  with  the  militia,  i*  trifling  with  tho  question.  The  militia  is  a 
peace  establishment — exists  always  in  all  the  States.  The  States  do  keep  the 
militia,  but  not  troops  of  war  in  time  of  peace.  When  the  Constitution 
was  framed  the  States  had  a  large  frontier  exposed  to  sudden  invasions  by 
hostile  Indian  tribes.  History  had  also  shown  that  Republics  were  subject, 
to  insurrections  and  ^resistance  to  the  process  of  law.  The  desire  was  to 
provide  a  power  ample  to  protect  this  large  frontier  from  Indian  incursions, 
to  preserve  internal  peace  and  security,  and  to  do  all  this  without  a  large 
standing  army.  This  was  the  very  purpose  of  the  militia.  It  was  not  to 
prosecute  war,  but  to  preserve  the  peace — to  be  used  in  sudden  emergen- 
cies—and to  this  end  it  was  organized  to  be  kept  always  trained,  always  offi- 
cered, and  in  every  locality.  And  as  the  militia  embraced  the  great  body  of 
the  people  whose  business  was  not  war,  but  agriculture,  commerce,  and  all 
the  industrial  pursuits,  and  ought  not,  therefure,  to  be  called  away  for  a 
long  period  from  their  pursuits,  the  power  of  Congress  is  expressly  limited 
to  call  forth  the  militia  only  to  suppress  insurrections,  repel  invasions  and  exe- 
cute the  laws.  The  militia  may  sometimes  aid  the  army  ;  but  always  for 
short  periods  ;  and,  therefore,  the  militia,  as  such,  has  never  been  called  out 
for  a  longer  period  than  six  months  in  this  country.  A  proposition  by  Mr. 
Giles  to  call  out  the  militia  for  two  years,  was  denounced  by  the  very  men 
who  opposed  conscription,  as  an  unconstitutional  attempt  to  convert  the  mi- 
litia into  an  army  !  And,  in  this,  they  were  right.  But  "to  declare  war"  is  a 
wholly  different  power.  To  declare  war  is  not  to  suppress  insurrections,  re- 
pel invasions,  or  execute  the  laws.  It  is  broader  and  greater.  It  may  re- 
quire us  to  invade— to  resent  insult  and  revenge  injuries,  and  to  accomplish 
tnis  great  work — the  most  terrible  necessity  of  a  fallen  nature— Congress  had 
to  have  distinct  and  efficient  means.  And  for  this  purpose  Congress  was  in- 
vested with  the  power  to  raise  and  support  armies.  And  this  is  right.  If 
the  thirteen  States  had  remained  separate,  it  would  hare  required  as  large 
an  army  to  wage  war  by,  or  in  defence  of  one,  as  all.  The  expense  of 
each  would  also  be  as  great.  Indeed,  each  State  would  have  required  a  larg- 
er army  than  all  would  require,  for  with  so  many  rival  and  conflicting  pow- 
ers so  contiguous  to  each  other,  wars  and  collisions  would  have  been  fre- 
quent. To  avoid  these  very  evils — to  provide  a  common  defence— to  make 
that  common  defence  easy  and  light,  was  one  of  the  very  objects  of  the  Con- 
federation, and  to  make  that  common  defence  equal  and  a  unit ;  the  power  to 
raise  the  army  and  to  support  the  army  was  given  to  the  common  Govern- 
ment. To  have  left  the  execution  of  this  power  dependent  on  the  will  of  the 
States  would  have  been  ruinous.  For  one  State  might  be  willing  to  furnish 
its  quota  of  men  and  money,  and  another  unwilling,  as  was  soon  the  case, 
and  this  state  of  things  would  have  produced  not  only  weakness  and  injus- 
tice, but  disagreements,  criminations  and  collisions — the  very  evils  which 
were  intended  to  be  remedied.  In  the  war  now  pending,  Congress  did  not 
want  a  militia  to  repel  an  invasion.  Invasion,  it  is  true,  was  one  feature  of 
the  war;  but  it  was  only  one  feature.  Congress  wanted  an  army  to  prose- 
cute war — to  conquer  a  peace  and  win  independence. 

I  will  not  offend  your  intelligence  by  pursuing  so  palpable  an  argument. 
I  have  thought  this  much  was  due  from  me  because  of  my  relation  to  this 
legislation.  I  was  never  more  troubled  than  when  this  necessity  for  con- 
scription; in  some  form,  became  manifest.  The  country  at  the  time  was  filled 
with  gloom..  It  was  the  dark  hour  of  the  revolution.  I  had  no  doubt  even 
in  that  dark  hour  that  some  of  the  State  authorities  would  resist  the  law  as 
then  proposed.  I  said  as  much  in  the  Senate,  not  by  way  of  approval,  but  in 
shame  and  sorrow.  I  feared  the  disaffection  thus  began  by  politicians  and 
local  authorities  might  extend  to  the  army.  The  law  was  harsh  on  the 
twelve  months  men.  I  feared  they  might  be  reached  by  such  untimely  ap- 
peals and  hurtfnl  controversy.  This  would  have  wrecked  us  forever.  The 
cause  had  already  as  much  as  it  could  bear  in  the  common  enemy,  and  the 
struggle  was  fearful.  Whatever  might  be  my  opinion  of  the  patriotism  or 
wisdom  of  a  controversy  at  that  hour  of  darkness  and  gloom,  I  did  desire,  if 
possible,  to  avoid  it;  and  to  avoid  it  I  was  willing  to  leave  no  room  for  the 


15 

prejudices  of  the  reckless  or  the  whims  of  the  capricious.  Pending  the  sub- 
ject, therefore,  I  preferred  another  proposition,  or  bill,  a  milder  form  of  con- 
scription, whieh  I  thought  might  accomplish  the  good  and  aroid  the  contro- 
versy^ With  the  lights  now  before  me,  I  doubt  whether  the  milder  form  of 
conscription  for  which  I  voted  would  have  been  sufficient  for  the  crisis.  At 
all  events,  the  present  proposition  became  the  law  of  my  country,  and  1  shall, 
asa  good  citizen,  support  it;  and  with  equal  cheerfulness  whether  I  voted 
for  or  against  it.  I  will  not  countenance  that  sickly  patriotism,  nor  render 
commendation  to  that  higher  law  fanaticism  which  cannot  support  as  law. 
that  which,  as  a  proposition  of  expediency,  did  not  meet  the  approval  of  in- 
dividual preference. 

Failing  in  the  argument,  the  opponents  of  the  law  seek  to  provoke  the 
jealousies,  and  to  alarm  the  fears  of  the  people.  Why,  say  they,  if  this  pow- 
er to  raise  armies  by  conpulsion  is  conceded  to  the  Confederate  Govern- 
ment, that  Government  could  destroy  the  people  and  the  States.  Thus  they 
pass  away  from  the  Constitution  to  the  motives  of  those  who  happen  to  ad- 
minister it,  to  ascertain  the  powers  of  the  Government!  Until  the  advent,  in 
political  logic,  of  these  new  lights,  whose  theory  seems  to  be  that  nothing  was 
ever  before  understood,  and  whose  practice  seems  to  be  that  nothing°shall 
ever  be  considered  as  settled,  it  had  been  conceded  by  reasoners  of  sup- 
posed ability,  that  to  prove  a  power  could  be  abused  was  no  argument  to 
.show  the  power  did  not  exist.  Ex:stence  itself  may  be  abused,  and  unfortu- 
nately, all  existing  things  are  liable  to  be  abused.  Still,  all  things  do  exist. 
Uy  this  method  of  reasoning  you  could  soon  prove  that  Congress  had  no  pow- 
er whatever,  for  what  power  in  the  whole  enumerated  catalogue  might  not  be 
abused  to  the  injury  if  not  the  destruction  of  the  people  and  States  ?  Con- 
gress would  have  no  .power  "to  provide  and  maintain  a  navy ;"  for  they 
might  blockade  and  destroy  all  the  ports  of  the  States.  Congress  would 
have  no  power  to  "regulate  commerce  ;"  for  they  might  destroy  all  the  com- 
merce of  the  States.  And  it  would  never  do  to  permit  the  Confederate 
States  to  build  forts  and  iron  clad  vessels  for  the  protection  of  our  cities,  and 
man  them  with  Confederate  troops,  for  they  might  turn  the  guns  on  the  eities 
and  destroy  them !  The  truth  is,  my  friends,  when  men  or  rnlers  tcish  to  de- 
stroy, they  do  not.  wait  for  authority  to  do  so.  The  best  evidence  of  a  willing- 
ness to  assault  right  and  liberty  is  the  exercise  of  powers  not  granted,  or  of 
functions  not  conferred.  Revolutions  neither  make  nor  justify  tyrants,  but 
they  do  develope  them.  Place  no  power  in  the  hands  Of  those  who  betray  a 
love  for  the  exercise  of  power— who  plead  necessity  as  the  excuse  for  usurpa- 
tion^and  revolution  as  the  occasion  for  oppression.  The  crowing  grandeur 
ot  Washington's  character  was,  that  in  the  midst  of  revolution,  ke  obeyed 
the  laws;  and  the  highest  claim  which  Mr.  Davis  presents  for  your  confi- 
dence is,  that  with  examples  to  the  contrary  all  around  him.  he  has,  thus  far, 
strictly  refused  to  exercise  any  power  not  expressly  authorized  by  law.  It  is 
a  fact  well  attested  by  all  history,  that  they  find  most  fault  with  power  in  oth- 
ers, who,  themselves  exercise  ungranted  powers  most  freely.  This  is  the 
sure  unerring  ear-mark  of  that  ambition  which  made  Ciesar  and  Cromwell 
and  Bonaparte  trample  upon  the  liberty  they  swore  \o  defend,  and  grasp 
empire. 

^  Was  the  conscript  law  intended  to  destroy  the  States  ?  Did  it.  destroy  the 
States  l  On  the  contrary,  history  will  record  the  fact,  that  it  saved  the  States, 
and  saved  the  country.  Yea,  it  drove  back  the  foreign  invader  and  secures 
to  its  domestic  foes  the  privilege  of  sitting  here  in  peace,  to  defame  the  law 
as  an  usurpation,  the  government  that  enacted  it  as  oppressors,  and  the  he- 
roic army  that  obeyed  it  as  slaves  ! 

Nor  will  I  omit  this  occasion  to  enter  my  protest  against  that  folly  now  so 
common,  of  attempting  to  excite  jealousies,  controversies  and  conflicts  be- 
tween the  States  and  their  own  common  government.  To  hear  these  ill- 
timed  phillipics  against  that,  government,  a  stranger  would  suppose  that  the 
Confederate  States  was  a  government  foreign  to  the  States,  and  the  necessa- 
ry and  unyielding  enemy  of  the  States.  The  people  are  constantly  warned 
not  to  trust,  not  to  help,  not  to  sustain,  but  to  distrust  and  to  resist  their  own 
government  as  some  insidious  monster  always  stretching  for  power  to  de- 


16 

stroy  the  States.  Now,  my  friends,  who  are  they  that  administer  the  Con- 
federate States?  Are  they  not  citizens  of  the  States,  delegates  from  the 
States?  Are  not  their  interests  all  in  the  States?  Havel  lost  my  affection 
for  my  State  because  you  have  houored  me  as  her  delegate  in  that  govern- 
ment which  was  created  by  the  States  and  whose  business  is  to  protect  tho 
States  ?  Is  not  my  family,  my  property,  my  home,  my  every  interest  and  ev- 
ery hope  still  in  my  State  ?  Why  have  I  less  interest  in,  or  less  affection  for 
Georgia  than  I  had  when  I  occupied  one  of  your  seats  in  the  State  Assem- 
bly? We  have  gotten  rid  of  those  whose  interests  and  sympathies  were  dif- 
ferent from  our  own.  Let  us  also  get  rid  of  the  excessive  jealousies  which 
those  differences  furnished  politicians  with  an  excuse  to  inflame. 

The  government  is  your  own.  The  agents  who  administer  it  are  of  your 
own  choosing  from  your  own  citizenship.  Choose  wise  men,  good  men  ; 
then  give  them  your  confidence  and  support.  And  when  they  become  un- 
worthy, return  them  to  private  life. 

Eternal  vigilance  is  the  price  of  liberty !  I  grant  it.  But  I  deny  that  eter- 
nal vigilance  means  perpetual  snarling,  snapping,  fault  finding  and  com- 
plaining. I  deny  that  vigilance  means  resistance  to  the  government,  disaf- 
fection to  the  laws,  contumely  to  authority,  or  the  disorganizing  freedom  of 
individual  opinion  to  set  itself  up  against  legal  enactments  and  judicial  de- 
cisions. 

No,  there  is  no  foundation  for  these  constant  jealousies  and  threatened 
conflicts  between  the  State  and  Confederate  governments.  Nine  of  every 
ten  of  these  issues  spring,  not  from  any  real  well  grounded  differences,  but 
from  passion,  personal  ambition  and  party  manoeuvre.  There  is  little  diffi- 
culty in  understanding  the  respective  rights  and  powers  of  the  two  govern- 
ments where  the  desire  is  sincerely  and  only  to  understand  them.  The  pow- 
ers of  the  Confederate  Government  are  plaiuly  and  specifically  delegated. 
The  rights  of  the  States  are  covered  by  two  propositions:  first,  to  exercise 
the  powers  reserved  or  not  prohibited;  and,  second,  to  have  the  powers  del- 
egated exercised  according  to  the  pusposes  of  the  grant.  The  great  busi- 
ness of  the  Confederate  Government  is  to  manage  the  interests  common  to 
the  States,  and  especially  to  conduct  the  relations  with  foreign  governments. 
There  is  too  much  quibbling  about  terms.  I  sometimes  speak  of  the  Con- 
federate Government  as  a  nation.  What  is  meant  by  this?  When  applied  to 
the  Confederacy  it  has  no  territorial  reference.  Are  we  not  struggling  for 
admission  into  the  family  of  nations  ?  Are  we  not  claiming  and  demanding 
recognition  by  other  nations  ?  As  what  will  we  ask  them  to  recognize  us? 
By  what  name  will  we  be  called  ?  Agency  ?  Created  by  a  revocable  power 
of  attorney,  which  experiment  entered  into  to-day  and  which  caprice  may  re- 
call to-morrow  ?  Partnership  ?  A  society  of  convenience,  without  rank  or 
national  dignity?  A  standard  writer,  concurred  in  by  all  standard  writers, 
tells  us,  '-that  the  independent  States  entitled  to  rank  in  the  great  family  of 
nations,  are  those  powers  to  whom  belongs  the  right  of  embassy*."  The  right 
to  receive  and  to  send  public  ministers.  Will  not  this  be  the  great— the  pe- 
cu]iar — the  appropriate  province  of  the  Confederate  States?  Who  shall  con- 
clude our  treaties  of  peace  and  of  commerce;  form  alliances  ;  receive  ministers 
of  foreign  nations;  resent  insults  and  demand  reparation  for  injuries  ?  Who 
shall  float  the  flag,  and  protect  the  citizen  over  all  waters  and  in  all  lands  ? 
Who,  but  the  Confederate  States?  And  shall  we  say  they  shall  enter  this 
great  family  with  less  rank,  less  dignity,  and  less  power  for  success  than  oth- 
er nations  ?  Less  than  England,  or  France,  or  Russia ;  yea,  less  than  Turkey, 
Brazil,  or  Mexico? 

Away  with  this  perpetual  effort  to. belittle  and  paralyze  our  own  govern- 
ment. We  have  prescribed  its  boundaries,  beyond  which  it  cannot  pass,  and 
within  those  boundaries  let  us  not  quarrel  over  forms  nor  quibble  about  terms, 
but  render  that  confidence  and  co-operation  so  essential  to  efficiency.  _  Let 
each  government— State  and  Confederate— move  in  its  own  sphere,  neither 
interfering  with,  abusing,  nor  exciting  jealousies  against  the  other,  for  both 
are  seeking  the  one  great  end— the  happiness  of  the  same  people. 

Too  many  persons  will  not  interpret  the  Constitution  according  to  its  plain 
language,  and  clear  intent  and  meaning.    Adherence  to  some  preconceived 


n  ;  the  bias  of  association  :  the  desire  to  no 
eoinp'i  tonal  disappointment, 

time, admin  >vernment;  ambition, 

mtand  form  the  opinion  of  nu-n, 
declared  an 
titutiohal  when  it. 
their  views  or  promote  th  -.     It  is  according  to  the  phi- 

losophy of  the  lnt  man  s  ho  are  thq  id  rarely  seethe 

rarely  admit  an   error.     Such  minds  are  always  extreme,  some- 
»f  logic  which  they  will  hot  violate,  no  per- 
urait,   and    no   elevation  of  character 
;  an  qj  i'nionj  yet  are  never  con- 
sistent, fcy,  and 
nothi;                                                but  their  own   -                    lividual  opinion. 

augnrated  the  erusade 
,i  based  upon  a  plain  grant 
m,  were  nu  as'de  by  Circuit 

tkial  harangues   of  State  Governors* 
the  land  fixed  no  obligation  upon  in 
putes,  and  istinguisbed 

led-  as   governed 
Is  of  Northern  fanaticism  and  find  the 
■" i :r u    turn   your   eves   t>>   the  fields  of 
blood,  and  wail  an  intinent,  ai  i  i  see  the  only  le- 

gitimate  results  <  pirit  of  discord.     It  is  not  the  subject 

which  this  spirit  m  !   works  the  mischief;  it  is  tho  spirit  itself 

which  will  ;,  nd  makean  occj 

VV]  -  they  could 

hey  could   more  rights 

and  In  i  now  administer  the  '  e  Gov- 

ernmei  uth  up,  has  been  aistingun 

itates.     If  yon  cuter  the  Senate  chamber  you  find  there  tho 

well-balanced  Clay  of  Alabama;  hi.s  colleague,  thp  i  :  that 

able,  experienced  and  renowned   statesman,  Mr,  Hunter,   of  Virginia;  Mr. 

Barnwell,  of  South  Carolina,  than  whom  no  better  man  nor  purer  statesman 

ever  blessed  his  country  or  adorned  a  Senate  :  and  many  more  well  d 

Ing  of  mention;  all  of  whom  have  ever  Been  champions  of  the  rights  of  the 

.  and  all  of  whom  voted  for  and  advocated  the   I  tidn  Laws. 

Yet.  the  met  day  tell  us  that  these  nun  are  usurping  power  which 

crush  the  States !     I  no  limit;  effrontery  no  blush?     Has 

■  avocation  but  fault-finding !  patriotism;  no  end  but  power  i 

ambition  no  satiety  even  in  blood,  and  the.  country  no  destiny  but  dissension 

and  endless  divisions  ? 

But,  if  these  high  Confederate  characters  merit  not  your  confidence,  will 
not  the  decision  of  your  own  highest  State  Court— a   I 

i  than  whom  none  are  mure  eminent  as  jurists  .nor  u  •  ■ 
men — appease  your  wrath  and  convince  your  judgments?  Is  your  own 
it  Court  engaged,  also,  in  the  terrible  work  of  destroying  the  States 
and  enslaving  the  people  ?  Can  none  be  right  but  those  who  condemn  the 
law?  Can  none  be  trustworthy  but  those  who  persist  in  disco: 
come  to  this,  that  statesmanship  can  settle  no  principle;  character  excite  no 
the  courts  end  no  controversy  ?  Does  freedom  of  speech 
consist  iu  I  e  constituted  authorities  of  *he  land,    and  freedom  of 

opinion  confer  the  right  to  disregard  adjudicated  la^.v  ?  Beware,  my  coun- 
n,  lest  with  such  wild,  unbridled  theories,  you  mistake  licentiousness 
for  freedom,  and  enthrone  bloody  anarchy  in  the  seat  of  law-restraining  lib- 
erty! Casuists  have  written,  and  cabinets  hafe  debated,  to  ascertain  the 
best  form  of  government  and  the  true  philosophy  of  governing.  Every  form 
has  had  its  advocates,  and  every  peopie  their  experiments,  and  the  bloody 
arbitrament  of  war  has  shed  its  crimson  tides  in  the  ever-recurrii  g  contio- 
v.ersy.  But  to  one  great  conclusion  casuists  and  cabinets,  people  and  armies 
must  agree.     Ail  government  is  vanity  where   the  laws  are   notHwpectcd. 


is 

W  aim  vain  iuleel,  willaU  your  sacrifice*  be :;  your  sobs  will  fall,  in  vain, 
and  in  vain  will  you:  heroes  roll  back  the  re<{  wave  of  battle  and  vanquish 
the  countless  hosts  of  the  invader,  if,  when  peace  returns,  the  law  be  not  tho 
rule  of  every  man's  life,  and  the  guide  of  every  man's  opinions.  This  is  the 
rock  on  which  we  have  split.  This  is  the  rock  towards  which  we  are  .steer- 
ing again  :  the  growing,  spreading  disregard  of  law  and  disrespect  for  au- 
thority. The  phHosiphy  of  government  is  law.  The  stabdity  of  government 
is  law  The  glory  of  government  is  law.  And  oh  that  I  could  catch  the 
emphasis  which  would  force  universal  conviction  when  I  SB.%  tin-  FREEDOM 
OF  ttOyisJtNiVffiST  IS  LAW  !  Where  shall  conflicting  .opintons  harmonize, 
save  in  the  decisions  of  legal  authority;  and  how  can  we  agree  except  outho 
basis  of  well  considered  lav/  1 

These,  my  friends,  are  no  new  thoughts  with  me.  I  utter  them  with  eamesc- 
nesa,  because  1  have  felt  them  for  years.  Lawlessness  is  the  power  I  never 
cease  to  dread  ;  and  X  warn  you  this  night,  that  it  will  require  all  your  vigi- 
lance to  proveut  it  from  enslaving  yourselves,  and  establishing  its  throne  of 
ruined  hopes  in  this  land  we  leave  for  our  children,  and  all  in  the  name  v( 
liberty. 

But  there  is  another  state  of  things  which  transpired  in  the  history  of 
those  Conscription  laws  widen  is  the  reverse  of  that  against  which  I  have 
been  speaking,  and  which  is  well  calculated  to  gladden  our  confidence  and 
inspire  our  hope. 

I  have  said  that  I  predicted  resistance -by  some  in  authority  to  these  laws, 
and  that  under  the  cireumstances  then  existing  this  disaffection  might  ex- 
tend to  the  army,  and  we  should  be  undone!  My  judgment  was  not  at.  fault 
in  iti  conclusions  as  to  what  politicians  would  do;  but  the  apprehension 
that  their  teaching's  might  possibly  affect  the  conduot  of  the  troops  was 
groundless.  I  know  of  no  incident  of  the  kind  in  all  history  -more  beautiful 
and  touching  than  the  self-denying  patriotism  with  which '.the  troops  who 
originally  enlisted  for  twelve  months,  obeyed  the  first  Conscription  Act. 

In  ancient  Sparta  the  evidence  of  all  worth,  the  test  of  all  courage,  and 
the  sum  of  all  virtue,  was  obedience  to  the  laws.  And  Socrates,  the  Athe- 
nian, has  been  consecrated  to  immortality  for  more  than  twenty  centuries  as 
the  greatest  and  wisest  of  ancient  philosophers,  because  he  submitted  himself 
to  the  law  of  his  country,  though  that  law  was  procured  by  false  accusation 
and  doomed  him  to  the  death  of  a  felon. 

For  a  short  period  in  the  beginning  of  the  revolution,  the  government  ask- 
ed for  volunteers  to  serve  for  twelve  months. 

In  a  very  little  time  more  than  one  hundred  thousand  enlisted.  They  camo 
from  every  rank  and  condition  in  society.  They  came — the  tender  son  of 
fortune,  the  hardy  mechanic  from  his  shop,  the  student  from  his  lamp,  the 
laborer  from  his  plow,  the  bridegroom  from  his  chamber,  and  the  old  man 
irom  his  household — all  peers  and  comrades — rushing  to  the  front  in  this 
dawning  struggle  for  imperilled  liberty.  They  braved  the  scorching  heats 
and  life  destroying  miasmas  of  the  tropical  South.  They  endured  the  frozen 
snows  and  iey  winds  of  the  chilly  North.  Amid  the  flowing  gardens  of 
beautiful  Pensacola;  by  the  wave-washed  shore  of  surf-beaten  Hatteras  ; 
on  the  banks  of  the  classic  James  and  York;  and  over  the  dreary  summits 
and  through  the  rugged  gorges  of  the  mountains  of  Virginia,  these  first,  en- 
listed bands  of  Confederate  braves,  marched  and  camped  and  fought  and 
suffered  for  their  beleaguered  country.  J3y  the  deeds  which  heroes  love, 
,  and  the  pains  which  martyrs  only  feel,  they  have  made  the  names  of  Bethel 
and  Manassas,  Leesburg  and  Belmont,  Laurel  Hill  and  Sewell  Mountain,  as 
familiar  as  Marathon,  sacred  as  Bunker  Hill  ;md  immortal  as    Yorktown. 

The  months  rolled  by  and  the  end  of  enlistment  drew  near.  Fatigue  to 
the  extent  of  physical  strength  had  been  borne,  and  glory  enough  even  for 
the  spirit  of  the  Cavalier  had  been  won.  It  was  natural  that  the  heart  should 
turn  its  longings  from  the  strife,  and  the  tired  soldier,  "  foot-sore  and 
weary,"  should  desire  to  go  home  and  rest.  The  sweet  thought  made  the 
laugh  ring  merry  around  the  camp  fires,  and  was  whispered  in  earnest  hope 
from  comrade  to.  comrade  along  the  line  of  battle.  In  the  quiet  night  the 
sleeping  veteran,  all  fitful  in  dreams,  would  start  and  mutter  in  half  uttertd 


I  I 

'  ■  -   ■■  and 
l 

by  hw  *it}]m  -  rounds,    th 

i*re    ye  the  hcart-witm     • 

Ala-.'  for  the  cruel,  heartless  demands  of  re 
tred  along  our  borders.     These    . 
iution  and  ruin  by  as  piratical  an  inva 

earth.     Therefore,  the  reluctant  but  stern  enactment  came,  and  . 
earliest  patriot,  •'  This  return  .must  not  bo  yet!     Th 

m  iio  :  the  watch  must  stil!  be  kept,  and   for  two  .,  must 

endure   the  hardship*  of  camp  and  dare  the  dang  What  a 

Ve>t  of  >v.tr-„tisni  was  this  !     No  wonder  rh  it  srau  smen  felt  anxious  for  the 

of  this  trying  announcement.     No  wander  the  ene  . 
Hrujj  todispaua.    .-uui  just  at  im  critical  m 

of  dIjc  politician  waa  heard,  in  ace  suited  to  the  ■  ■  ••  whim- 

pers which  j  nice  iu  Kde n,  saying  to   these  trouble 

disappointed  spirits:  The  law  is  unconstitutional — tmjnst— unnecessary,  and 
binding  <>n  no  one  !     Vet,  not  one  of  that  hundred  thousand    Ustened 

of    the  char  nor,    or  questioned  the  duty  oi  obedien 
cliuclu  I  mew  the  ritte  and  stan  battte.     Their  \  •. 

was  against  the  foe  that  made  the  law  a  necessity.     And  by  that  ti 
independence  teas  won. 

Allalung  from  Malvern  Hill  to  Sharpsbusg,  and  from  the  Totemac  to  tha 
ire    sleeping   i ■  i   glury  to-night.     To    these,  thai 
happy  return  will  never  come,  bit!  ied  an  example  of  duty 

and  sacritice  which  all  n  ill  praise  and   their  children  shall  bless  for- 

ever.    Others,  more  fortunate,  have  returned,  Ai  of  them  with  arm 

limb,  or  on-;  eye,  and    with  scars  of  hoaor  such  as  Trojan   never  wore  and 
"i  never  won,   are  everywhere    urging  0oed  ence  to  the    laws  of  the 
country  th<  Ir  ciiivalry  obeyed,  what  excuse  has  ambition  t> 

resist/  If  the  army  is  satisfied,  why  .should  politjeiana  and  people  com- 
plain !  Here  let  the  gown  and  the  ermine  learn  of  the  sword  and  the  bayo- 
net,  a  lesson  of  obedience  and  submission.  Lot  the  sublime  examples  speak- 
ing in  the  rattling  musketry  and  deep  cannon  »  iiicka- 
homitiy  and  the  Shenandoah  silence  your  cavils — ye,  •  its  and  safe 
positions!  For  shame,  let  demagogueism  slink  away  in  silence,  and 
forever  to  disturb  a  people  so  worthy  todwell'in  peace;  and  with  one 
and  one  heart  let  us  consecrate  to  immortality,  and  £o  mi  emnla- 
tfon  of  our  children  the  memory  of  these  confederate  heroes  of  more  than 
Spartan  courage,  and  greater  than  Socratic  virtue. 

Thus,  gentlemen  and  fellow  citizens,  in  feebleness  but  in  candor,  have  I 
given  you  my  views  of  the  condition  and  proBpeeta  of  our  country.  Wa 
began  in  divisions  and  doubts  These  divisions  are  healed  and  these  doubts 
*-.regoue.     We  began  in   weakness,     hi  the  very    sti  •  life   we   are 

growing  strong.  We  began  without  arms,  without  munitions  ot  war,  and 
without  known  resources.  We  have  procured. and  are  daily  making  plenty 
of  arms  of  faiost  excellent  quality,  from  the  pistol  to  the  heaviest  ordnance. 
"We  have  no  lack  of  the  munitions  of  war;  and  our  mountains  mid  our  caves, 
our  fields  and  our  looms  are  furnishing  resources  and  supplies  abundant  for 
every  purpose  and  for  all  our  people.  Providence  seems  to  have  hid  away 
in  our  earth  every  good  and  desirable  tiling,  and  when  the  hour  of  our  need 
arrived,  kindly  guided  us  to  them.  We  have  suffered  disasters,  and  in  the 
nature  of  war  must  surfer  them  again.  Bui  we  have  had  four  fold  triumphs, 
and  shall  have  final  success.  But  few  differences  and  discussions  have  arisen,' 
and  time  and  patience  have  soon  shown  them  to  be  unfounded  and  unneces- 
sary. The  only  remaining  difference— the  conscription  laws— was  never  ex- 
tensive, is  narrowing  daily,  and  must  soon  pass  away  with  the  others.  They 
are  founded  on  a  specific  grant,  were  obeyed  by  the  army,  and  saved  the 
coumry.  In  the  shadow  of  these  great  facts  opposition  must  sicken  and  die. 
We  have  a  better  anny  than  we  have  ever  had,  and  are  stronger  in  every  ele- 
ment, of  power.  We  have  already  won  success,  and  patience  wiil  bring  the 
full  truition  of  our  hopes.     No  other  nutiou  will  molest  us.  No  outside  power, 


*20 

r)ftTpf»rnt>in»f:6n  of  oMsitle  ^otvefs,  fan  f>»vbjn£nfe  »r$;     YT,--  ran  ne*e-r,  foe  Fn?>- 
riued  until    wo  oni'sjefpes  shall   will    Hi     Ail    the  eiv.H:z«Sef. nations   epmmerxl 
h  and  adftnt.    onr  vHsdoni,     Onr  eneiYiir-s^  hi  tear  and   treinhlinar, 
er.     The   darkest   day  of    the    crisis   is   behind  ns !   anid  as 
such    as  ihe  natural  on  the  earTs  rnorniijg.and   brr.sfoawav 

jilc>    i'i,  :  ,'h   surround  ns  to-night,  so  surety  will 

e  on  an  ear>y  morrow,  and  drivin#away  lirese  ninr- 
Uv  eJimdsof  war,  give  splendor ttf  the  earth,  aiid  light  and  life  and  bRj»i*i<* 
hew   tu  our  children'. 


Hollinger  Corp. 
PH8.5 


